Electronic Tuning of Zinc Oxide by Direct Fabrication of Chromium (Cr) incorporated photoanodes for Visible-light driven Water Splitting Applications

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordHerein, we report the synthesis of Cr incorporated ZnO sheets arrays microstructures and construction of photoelectrode through a direct aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) method. The as-prepared Cr incorporated ZnO microstructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, powdered X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-Vis diffused reflectance spectroscopy. The Cr incorporation in ZnO red shifted the optical band gap of as-prepared photoanodes. The 15% Cr incorporation in ZnO has shown enhanced PEC performance. The AACVD method provides an efficient in situ incorporation approach for the manipulation of morphological aspects, phase purity, and band structure of photoelectrodes for an enhanced PEC performance.Higher Education Commission of PakistanUniversity of Mancheste

Superior visible-light assisted water splitting performance by Fe incorporated ZnO photoanodes

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordTransition metal ion incorporation has been emerged as an effective stratagem to enhance the performance of metal oxide photoanodes. In the present work, we design and fabricate the plain ZnO and (2, 5, 10 and 15%) Fe incorporated ZnO photoanodes by aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) method. The 15% Fe incorporated ZnO photoanode displayed excellent photocurrent density of 4.6 mA/cm2 at 0.7 VAg/AgCl with photo conversion efficiency of 2.4%, which is 159 times higher than pure ZnO photoanode (0.028 mA/cm2). The obtained results are remarkably superior to the previous results. Furthermore, the Fe incorporated photoelectrodes have also shown good stability. The excellent photoelectrochemical performance of Fe incorporated ZnO showed red shift in band edge with relative decrease in the band gap energy compared to pure ZnO. The demonstration of this simple method for the deposition of Fe incorporated ZnO to fabricate highly efficient photoanode for the PEC water splitting can easily be applied to other similar systems.Higher Education Commission of Pakista

A secure and lightweight drones-access protocol for smart city surveillance

The rising popularity of ICT and the Internet has enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to offer advantageous assistance to Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET), realizing a relay node's role among the disconnected segments in the road. In this scenario, the communication is done between Vehicles to UAVs (V2U), subsequently transforming into a UAV-assisted VANET. UAV-assisted VANET allows users to access real-time data, especially the monitoring data in smart cities using current mobile networks. Nevertheless, due to the open nature of communication infrastructure, the high mobility of vehicles along with the security and privacy constraints are the significant concerns of UAV-assisted VANET. In these scenarios, Deep Learning Algorithms (DLA) could play an effective role in the security, privacy, and routing issues of UAV-assisted VANET. Keeping this in mind, we have devised a DLA-based key-exchange protocol for UAV-assisted VANET. The proposed protocol extends the scalability and uses secure bitwise XOR operations, one-way hash functions, including user's biometric verification when users and drones are mutually authenticated. The proposed protocol can resist many well-known security attacks and provides formal and informal security under the Random Oracle Model (ROM). The security comparison shows that the proposed protocol outperforms the security performance in terms of running time cost and communication cost and has effective security features compared to other related protocols

Non-variant specific antibody responses to the C-terminal region of merozoite surface protein-1 of Plasmodium falciparum (PfMSP-119) in Iranians exposed to unstable malaria transmission

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The C-terminal region of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>merozoite surface protein-1 (PfMSP-1₁₉) is a leading malaria vaccine candidate antigen. However, the existence of different variants of this antigen can limit efficacy of the vaccine development based on this protein. Therefore, in this study, the main objective was to define the frequency of PfMSP-1₁₉haplotypes in malaria hypoendemic region of Iran and also to analyse cross-reactive and/or variant-specific antibody responses to four PfMSP-1₁₉variant forms.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The PfMSP-1₁₉was genotyped in 50 infected subjects with <it>P. falciparum </it>collected during 2006-2008. Four GST-PfMSP-1₁₉variants (E/TSR/L, E/TSG/L, E/KNG/F and Q/KNG/L) were produced in <it>Escherichia coli </it>and naturally occurring IgG antibody to these proteins was evaluated in malaria patients' sera (n = 50) using ELISA. To determine the cross-reactivity of antibodies against each PfMSP-1₁₉variant in <it>P. falciparum-</it>infected human sera, an antibody depletion assay was performed in eleven corresponding patients' sera.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequence data of the PfMSP-1₁₉revealed five variant forms in which the haplotypes Q/KNG/L and Q/KNG/F were predominant types and the second most frequent haplotype was E/KNG/F. In addition, the prevalence of IgG antibodies to all four PfMSP-1₁₉variant forms was equal and high (84%) among the studied patients' sera. Immunodepletion results showed that in Iranian malaria patients, Q/KNG/L variant could induce not only cross-reactive antibody responses to other PfMSP-1₁₉variants, but also could induce some specific antibodies that are not able to recognize the E/TSG/L or E/TSR/L variant forms.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present findings demonstrated the presence of non-variant specific antibodies to PfMSP-1₁₉in Iranian falciparum malaria patients. This data suggests that polymorphism in PfMSP-1₁₉is less important and one variant of this antigen, particularly Q/KNG/L, may be sufficient to be included in PfMSP-1₁₉-based vaccine.</p

A Unified Functional Network Target for Deep Brain Stimulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

BACKGROUND: Multiple deep brain stimulation (DBS) targets have been proposed for treating intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Here, we investigated whether stimulation effects of different target sites would be mediated by one common or several segregated functional brain networks. METHODS: First, seeding from active electrodes of 4 OCD patient cohorts (N = 50) receiving DBS to anterior limb of the internal capsule or subthalamic nucleus zones, optimal functional connectivity profiles for maximal Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale improvements were calculated and cross-validated in leave-one-cohort-out and leave-one-patient-out designs. Second, we derived optimal target-specific connectivity patterns to determine brain regions mutually predictive of clinical outcome for both targets and others predictive for either target alone. Functional connectivity was defined using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired in 1000 healthy participants. RESULTS: While optimal functional connectivity profiles showed both commonalities and differences between target sites, robust cross-predictions of clinical improvements across OCD cohorts and targets suggested a shared network. Connectivity to the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and precuneus, among other regions, was predictive regardless of stimulation target. Regions with maximal connectivity to these commonly predictive areas included the insula, superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and anterior thalamus, as well as the original stereotactic targets. CONCLUSIONS: Pinpointing the network modulated by DBS for OCD from different target sites identified a set of brain regions to which DBS electrodes associated with optimal outcomes were functionally connected-regardless of target choice. On these grounds, we establish potential brain areas that could prospectively inform additional or alternative neuromodulation targets for obsessive-compulsive disorder

Low-Temperature Continuous Flow Synthesis of Metal Ammonium Phosphates

The synthesis of the high performance inorganic materials essential to the quality of modern day life is hindered by traditionalist attitudes and reliance on outdated methods such as batch syntheses. While continuous flow methods have been extensively adopted in pharmaceutical circles, they remain largely unexplored for the preparation of inorganic compounds, despite higher efficiency, safety and versatility. In this publication, we demonstrate a step-change for the synthesis of metal ammonium phosphates through conversion of the extant batch process to a low-temperature continuous regime, exhibiting a tenfold increase in throughput combined with a significant decrease in particle size

Frequency and clinical patterns of stroke in Iran - Systematic and critical review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cerebrovascular disease is the second commonest cause of death, and over a third of stroke deaths occur in developing countries. To fulfil the current gap on data, this systematic review is focused on the frequency of stroke, risk factors, stroke types and mortality in Iran.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirteen relevant articles were identified by keyword searching of PubMed, Iranmedex, Iranian University index Libraries and the official national data on burden of diseases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The publication dates ranged from 1990 to 2008. The annual stroke incidence of various ages ranged from 23 to 103 per 100,000 population. This is comparable to the figures from Arab Countries, higher than sub-Saharan Africa, but lower than developed countries, India, the Caribbean, Latin America, and China. Similarly to other countries, ischaemic stroke was the commonest subtype. Likewise, the most common related risk factor is hypertension in adults, but cardiac causes in young stroke. The 28-day case fatality rate is reported at 19-31%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Data on the epidemiology of stroke, its pattern and risk factors from Iran is scarce, but the available data highlights relatively low incidence of stroke. This may reflect a similarity towards the neighbouring nations, and a contrast with the West.</p